Creation Versus Discovery

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    I have heard about a debate that is ranging in the sciences and mathematics about whether or not concepts in mathematics and science, inventions, or technology and human innovation in general are "created" by human beings or are "discovered" by curiosity driven scientific and mathematical explorers. 

   This debate is not new. It's been going on for a while now. I first heard about it from my economics professor friend at MSU and did a lot of thinking about it on my own.

     To some it up, there are certain academics and mathematicians who view that many mathematical concepts and constructs are man-made. "Created" by the human mind and rendered solely as the constructs and inventions of human beings. 

     This branches off into technological and social innovation and ideation, where inventions are the creations of the inventors and innovation is more creation-oriented and its existence is mostly contingent on human creativity.

      The opposing argument is based on discovery. It argues that these concepts and innovations already exist and they exist independently of the human mind, and as humans advance and grow more sophisticated, we "discover" these concepts, ideas, and constructs of reality, either in our thoughts or in our exploration of the natural world and the laws and structure of the universe. This view is that human beings create nothing outright, only discover already existing ideas and innovations through thinking or experimentation.

     Believe it or not, given how much I talk about creativity and a supreme Creator, I actually lean more along the lines of discovery. It's kind of strange, I know, but I'll explain. 

  I look at human creativity as building and constructing new systems, stories, and ideas out of already existing pieces. Not only that, the new constructs we develop have always had the potential to exist long before the new construct was discovered.

On top of this, I take the radical platonist approach and argue that a seemingly novel construct or invention has existed conceptually independent of human beings forever. The idea of that thing has always existed, an innovative and creative human just "stumbles upon" this new thing through discovery of thought and the discovery involved with scientific exploration.  

I view even my own creative capacity as much more discovery then my own originality. Everything and every idea I have ever thought of already existed before me and has always existed in the mind of God, or in the broader infinity of existence.

     As a result, I view human creativity is more discovery of new things rather than outright invention of them solely by authority of the inventor. The reason I view it this way is that the building blocks of any invention or innovation have already existed, as I mentioned above. The inventor just finds a new way of configuring those pieces, and even the concept of the invention has existed independently of the inventor forever, always having the potential to be discovered.

Since I believe this entire existence is an infinite system, all ideas, forms, and constructs already exist and have existed LONG before any human being accessed them and discovered them. Eternally before, to be clear about my beliefs and viewpoint.

   I wouldn't go so far to say human creativity is an illusion. That would undercut a lot of my philosophy. I do think it is much more deeply rooted in the discovery of ideas that are new to us, but not new to existence. Since there are an infinite amount of them and countless ways to combine and configure them, the creative and discovery process is endless and boundless. 

       That endlessness and boundlessness of the mind of God and His created existence makes it so there are plenty of building blocks for humans to work with in their creative endeavors, and human exploration and discovery of existence could truly be unending and a massive and exciting process